News Brief
A new North American organization,
The Cohousing Network, was officially established on September 21 at the third North American Cohousing Conference in Seattle. The Cohousing Network will take over many of the activities of regional associations, such as the Rocky Mountain CoHousing Association. It will produce
CoHousing: The... Read more
News Brief
Building products database on CD-ROM for Windows™. The Associa-tion for Environment Conscious Build-ing, Nant-y-Garreg, Saron, Llandysul, Carmarthenshire, SA44 5EJ, UK; 01559 370908 (phone), buildgreen@ aol.com (e-mail). Requires Windows 3.1 or later, 8 MB RAM. £31.50 postpaid (about $19.50).
This green building products database from the U.... Read moreNews Analysis
For over six years, a committee of the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) has been working to revise the society’s Standard 62-1989, “Ventilation for Acceptable Air Quality.” While the public review draft of the revision was widely felt by practicing engineers to be a big... Read more
Op-Ed
I read with great interest your article titled “New Life for Old Carpets” in the June issue (
EBN
Vol. 6, No. 6). It was one of the more comprehensive and accurate articles on the subject of carpet recycling.
However, I would like to point out that AlliedSignal does have a very active... Read more
News Analysis
News Brief
Don Lindemann, editor. Quarterly magazine. The CoHousing Network, P.O. Box 2584, Berkeley, CA 94702; 510/486-2656. Subscription rates range from $20 to $75/year.
While the books are important for getting a comprehensive overview, the magazine is the easiest way to keep up with developments, both regionally and nationally. Articles by... Read more
News Brief
The second edition of the book Build it with Bales adds lots of useful information.
by Matts Myhrman and S.O. MacDonald. 1997, Out On Bale, 1037 E. Linden Street, Tucson, AZ 85719; 520/624-1673, outonbale@aol.com. Paperback, 140 pages, $29.95 + $4 S&H.
“It’s not heavy enough to be a good doorstop and the movie version isn’t out yet, so you might as well read it.” So begins the “Ways to Use this Book” section of... Read more
News Brief
by Chris Hanson. 1996, Hartley and Marks, Vancouver, British Columbia and Point Roberts, Washington. Paperback, 278 pages, $24.95.
Once Cohousing has convinced you that there is no better way to live, The Cohousing Handbook will show you how to make it happen. Hanson takes the subject matter of one chapter in Cohousing—the development... Read more
Case Study
A small group of Cambridge Cohousing participants gathers during a visit to the construction site this past summer.
Cohousing has the potential to be a very low-impact housing option, though it doesn’t always work out that way. Communities in rural areas still tend to increase automobile use and may take up valuable land. Houses are not always as energy- efficient as they could be. A new cohousing development nearing completion... Read more
News Brief
by Kathryn McCamant and Charles Durrett with Ellen Hertzman. 1994, Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, California. Paperback, 288 pages, $29.95.
This beautiful book has aptly been called the "Bible" of the Cohousing movement. McCamant and Durrett are generally credited with popularizing the Danish cohousing model in the U.S., and the first... Read more
News Brief
The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $200,000 to the U.S. Green Building Council (www.usgbc.org) for development and implementation of the LEED Building Rating System. The funding will be used for development of a design assistance manual and companion software, as well as for development of a marketing plan. LEED, which stands for... Read more
News Analysis
News Brief
A few days after Browne’s address at Stanford, Senate Majority Leader
Trent Lott blasted solar when addressing the
Independent Petroleum Association. An article in the May 23
Washington Post (reported by
PV News) quoted Lott as facetiously saying: “I’m sure you petroleum folks understand that solar power will... Read more
News Analysis
William McDonough, prominent environmental architect and dean of the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture, has now founded a new Institute within the School he heads. The Institute for Sustainable Design has goals nearly as broad as McDonough’s vision, aiming to reinvent industry and... Read more
News Brief
A new membership organization, the
Wisconsin Green Building Alliance, has been formed as an independent program of the Wisconsin Environmental Initiative. The new Milwaukee-based organization aims to promote green building practices.
Matthew Tendler, AIA, of the firm Kahler Slater, is the organization’s first steering committee... Read more
Op-Ed
You stated in response to a letter from Structural Board Association President John Lowood in your July/August issue that “while formaldehyde emissions from panels made with PF (phenolic formaldehyde) binder are quite low, they are still problematic for some individuals.” While this could be true for some... Read more
News Brief
The
Good Wood Alliance, formerly the Woodworkers’ Alliance for Rain-forest Protection (WARP), is merging with the
Forest Products Buyers Group to form a new organization:
The Certified Forest Products Council (CFPC). The CFPC will be based in Beaverton, Oregon, and directed by David Ford. Good Wood Alliance’s executive... Read more
Product Review
News Brief
by James Steele. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997. Hardcover, 285 pages, $49.95.
Sustainable Architecture consists of a series of essays and case studies addressing various aspects of environmentally responsible design. The strength of this material is in the perspective offered by Steele, an Associate Professor of Architecture at the University... Read moreNews Brief
, in a commencement address to graduates of Stanford University in May, broke ranks with many in the petroleum industry by expressing concern about global warming. He was quoted in the July/August issue of
Solar Today as asserting that it is “unwise and potentially dangerous to ignore the mounting... Read more


